Mysterious Code on an Ancient Cup

By Miss Cellania in Science & Tech on Sep 10, 2009 at 2:14 am

Archaeologists in Jerusalem have found a 2,000-year-old stone cup. The leader of the excavation team Shimon Gibson of the University of North Carolina says this kind of cup was common in Jewish households of the time, but this particular cup is different.

What sets the newfound cup apart is its inscription, which is still sharply etched but so far impossible to understand.Similar to intentionally enigmatic writing in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the cup’s script appears to be a secret code, written in a mixture of Hebrew and Aramaic, the two written languages used in Jerusalem at the time (see video of a village where the language of Jesus is still spoken).

“They wrote it intending it to be cryptic,” Gibson said.

The inscription will eventually be posted online. Link

(image credit: S. Pfann/UHL)

Tags: archaeology, cryptology, Jerusalem

Neat stuff from the NeatoShop:

Lady Helena Handbasket
Sep 10th, 2009 at 7:16 am
When they finally decode it will probably say “World’s greatest dad”
Jim Coen
Sep 10th, 2009 at 8:45 am
I agree with “World’s Greatest Dad”… but would that make it the Holy Grail?
timgg
Sep 10th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Based on the photo, it looks like the code is:
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
Berick Cook
Sep 10th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
timgg wins the comment of the day XD
Christophe
Sep 10th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
it says : “My son went to Nineveh and all I got was this lousy cup”
A
Sep 10th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
It probably is the holy grail, and it probably says “NOTHING IS FINER THAN FISHIN’ AT THE CRACK OF DAWN” cos Jesus obviously was a redneck from the south.. at least what I gather from the pics I’ve seen.
Puzzled Monkey
Sep 10th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
It’s really hard to read because of the shallow surface scratches, but it appears to actually use the letters of ancient hebrew/phoenician script, rather than the aramaic letters that replaced them during the first exile.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Hebrew_alphabet#Ancestral_ scripts_and_script_variants

The old “aleph-bet” was not commonly known but would have been recognized by the well-educated religious scholars or priests of the time. Use of those letters connoted something similar to the use of gothic script in bibles today … it’s an evocation of the authority of tradition, and would have had the additional advantage of obscuring the meaning somewhat from casual eyes. So I wouldn’t call it a code, exactly, but more of a filter.

This sort of layered complexity was typical of sects such as the Essenes. In the Dead Sea scrolls they wrote the tetragrammaton YHVH in the old script.
lannaxe96
Sep 10th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
I don’t trust the opinions honestly, and to tell you the truth, if this vessel was found dating back to the era that NG says it did, I think it’s a joke.

When it pertains to Biblical Archaeology, and you’re taking about people during that time that were master craftsman, this vessel doesn’t fly. It looks like some kid took a knife and carved some cheap wood.

It’s sloppy really. I want documented proof!

Keep track of the comments with

Comment RSS

Lijit Search

The latest from NeatoBambino: